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Iceland - July 28, 2021
Looking forward to touring Iceland and meeting new friends. We have meet lifelong friends stretching from coast to coast from each Tauck adventure my family and I have been on and that is a wonderful gift. We are looking forward to see the world again. Who else is journeying on this cruise? Judy
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Not on your cruise, Judy, but I was just thinking as I was reading all of the entries how nice it is to see people getting out and enjoying this marvelous planet we live on! We are on the June 30th departure to Iceland. I was hoping to find some postings from those that are just returning but maybe they aren't even back yet. Hope you enjoy your trip!
Please tell me about it when you return. I am so looking forward to doing something. It was a trip we were supposed to take last year which was cancelled. I've been on 9 different Tauck adventures. All of them were fabulous but, of course, I have my favorites. I have two other trips pending. Where do you live?
In the Icelandair lounge in Seattle, waiting to board in an hour. Documentation required at the airport: passport, COVID vaccination card. Further documentation that we had to get within 72 hours of arrival/ship boarding: Iceland visit pre-registration and COVID test. Both have been completed. We got tested yesterday and the results showed up this morning ( thankfully with negative results ). If for some weird reason they were positive the trip would likely have to be scrubbed. I will post more about the testing, protocols, etc. as time allows during the tour.
As an aside, we thought we would be transitioning weatherwise going from Tucson to Seattle and then to Iceland. Surprise, Seattle broke all time heat records 106 yesterday, 102 today when we got to the airport at 11am. FYI - Don’t be in Seattle when it is 100+ Because no place has air conditioning. Oh well, another travel story to remember.
Safe travels to all fellow Tacktourians resuming travel!
Wishing you safe travels and a great tour.
Arrived in Iceland. Currently in quarantine in our room in the hotel (expect results in 5-6 hours). We were tested (both a mouth and nose swab) as the last step at the airport before hooking up with Tauck transportation. It took about 45 minutes to get through all of the steps at the airport. It's overcast and a bit misty. We’re anxious to escape quarantine and start exploring. In theory, the airport testing ends on June 30th.
More to come...
Everyone is going to enjoy your news Sam, keep it coming. I wish I could remember the tiny little restaurant which is really more like a small shack the local fishermen use, where they have amazing fish soup and you all sit long tables..May have been a photo of it in my book. Norwegian museum is also fun. don’t j ow why I remembering all these facts now….
Have a fantastic time. I heard the Icelandic chocolate is supposed to be pretty good. Let me know if the tour director discusses the history of Icelandic horses at all. It is fascinating. Judy
Icelandic skyr is also very good. Have a great time - I look forward to your updates!
You visit the Icelandic horses and get lots of info on them, a chance to pet them too, cute!
Smiling Sam - Have a wonderful time and looking forward to the updates! We will leave on July 28 and join Silversea on July 30 for our trip to Iceland.
Escaped quarantine right at the 5 hour mark, just past noon. It turned into a very lovely and sunny day. We walked down to the Hallgrimskirkja. An amazing church. The elevator to the top was closed so we couldn’t go to the top. That was a bit disappointing since it had turned into such a sunny day. We then walked around town a bit more, then down to the Sun Voyager statue, and then back to the hotel for a drink in the bar. We decided to eat in the bar ( had good fish and chips ) as well and call it an early night. The tour starts tomorrow at noon. We haven’t had any tour director contact yet so the process in the morning is still a bit unknown.
So much for Day 0 of the tour!
Start of Day 1 - Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork! Lots of forms to fill out and turn in - some for Tauck, some for Ponant. Turns out that our airport test in Reykjavik would have sufficed. That said the TD told us that people on the first tour (two weeks ago) didn’t get those results in time to participate in Day 1 activities and hadn’t gotten a test in the US before leaving. For us we had both, the Iceland and US test results within the 72 hour window before the tour started. Better to have more, than not enough. We received our bag tags, name tag, and Tauck pin for the ship today as well (things that use to come with the green books).
Today’s itinerary is modified from the website itinerary so it looks like we will see Hallgrimskirkja again (we saw it yesterday on our own because it wasn’t on the website itinerary). We submitted our excursion choices today for the whole tour. Some of those were also different than what’s on the website.
Enough for now, we’re waiting for our bags to be picked up from our room and then downstairs to board coach for the actual tour start.
I the tauck app working for you, Sam?
I haven’t tried the Tauck app. Not sure the ship’s bandwidth will support reloading and testing. I’ll try to test it, but it may not be until we’re back to Reykjavik.
Remainder of Day 1: nice lunch at the Harpa concert hall, then a drive through Old Town on the way to the Perlan Museum. An interesting ice cave exhibit here, a 360 degree view of Reykjavik, and some really good ice cream. Next was a stop at the Hallgrimskirkja. Got to go to the top this time, but didn’t get to hear the huge organ played during either visit. Next we headed towards the ship, with a photo stop at Iceland’s Presidents house. We drove to within a 100 yards with no visible security presence. Much different than the White House. Finally we headed to the ship. Ponant has very stringent COVID protocols. Before we could even board we had to present two Ponant forms, our vaccination cards, and our PCR test to the ship doctor. They disinfected all carry on bags and I assume they did the same with the checked bags which were already in our rooms. Finally we were escorted to our rooms. Next up was a presentation by the Tauck team, the ship’s Captain, and an emergency drill. Next up was dinner and we finally set sail about 8:30. Ponant requires that masks are worn at all times on the ship except when in your stateroom or when eating or drinking something. Ponant’s expectation is that masks will be worn during all excursions as well, but we will see if that is the case, since Tauck seems to be a bit less strict on the protocols.
Day 2 activities include a presentation by a BBC wild animal expert and then an excursion of choice. We’ve selected a bird and sea life watching segment on a fishing boat. The evening includes the Captain’s Welcome dinner.
Will try to post another write up tomorrow. Now off to bed.
Sam. I’m sure all regular readers on the forum are grateful for your input on this post Pandemic tour. Thank you very much!
The only thing that concerns me is what you say about Tauck and mask wearing/protocols. While I realize that on the ships, there is a requirement that everyone be vaccinated, I hope this does not happen on the land tours where there is a possibility of some members of the group not being vaccinated. Tauck have already stated that they really can’t tell us for sure how things will proceed if a member of the tour tests positive during a tour. When Tauck began promoting post pandemic tours, we were reassured that all tour members would be required to wear masks and adhere to protocols. Many people are still not comfortable without masks. Others may have booked tours with the reassurance of strict adherence. This was one of the concerns I had last year, would Tauck protect me from a fellow non mask wearing member of the group. Even more alarming, I keep hearing of more snd more friends and acquaintances that are refusing to get vaccinated. People one would not think would be against vaccination.
Was the BBC guy Martin?
I imagine everyone knows that as of midnight on Saturday, June 26, both visitors and residents of Iceland are no longer required to wear face masks, social distance, or limit the number of attendees at gatherings. 60% of its residents are fully vaccinated and 87% have at least one shot. I for one would welcome loosened restrictions on this tour, so long as those who choose to still wear masks feel totally welcome to do so.
Day 2 - Slept in so missed breakfast and the BBC wildlife presentation. The birding and marine sealife excursion was fun. We were on the water for for a little over an hour. Masks were only required when in the port area ( as the TD put it, within binocular range of the ship in case the Captain was watching ). During the boat ride we were taken to some small islands where gulls, puffins, and cormorants were nesting or just hanging out. On one of the islands there were some Icelandic sheep. They are very striking. After going around about three of these small islands the boat drug a device along the bottom and then hoisted it into the boat where the crew shucked and provided fresh scallops for consumption. I thought they were wonderful, but my wife and niece wanted no part of them. Besides the scallops an assortment of other things were brought aboard. I will post some pictures upon return home. After returning to port my wife, my niece, and I opted for some fish and chips from the local ‘fish and chips food truck/trailer’ (we had slept through breakfast), while most of the rest of the excursion participants (20 were on this excursion) wandered around the small town ( about 1200 people ). After the fish and chips I made a dash to a nearby shop and got a tiny puffin stuffed animal for my wife and niece. Then we all headed back to the ship. The Captain’s Dinner is this evening. My wife and niece are looking forward to getting a bit more dressed up vs the explorer wardrobes we wore for the excursion.
The makeup of the ship is about 70 Tauck people and 65 Ponant people. I forgot to mention that we had a bottle of champagne in our room when we first boarded. It was a thank you, because they switched our room from the one we had, had booked for about two years. They moved us one room down the hall, room 609/611 vs 605/607.
That’s all for now.
Sam, do you mean you had French passengers? Your boat tour sounded fun, I’m not sure that was an option on our tour. I reaaly liked the visit to the place where you were dive bombed with arctic terns and the town that was covered with ash from
the volcanic eruption. Look forward to your photos and more details of your site seeing.
Sam thank you for all the information hoping you continue to have a great time.
Sam — I’m thoroughly enjoying my vicarious vacation!
British - the BBC person is Tim Martin. The occupants of the ship are 70 Tauck and 65 Ponant. The excursions are only Tauck people. Ponant has their own excursions.
The Captain’s dinner was a choice of either a classic or vegetarian five course meal - way too much food ( but I ate it all ). Course one an aperitif ( a foie gras). Course two a cold starter( some lobster concoction). Course three a hot starter ( a cod dish ). Course four the main entree ( a veal dish ) Course five dessert ( a dish with a cookie, ice cream, pear and apple ). Wine throughout. As you can tell I didn’t have the vegetarian option.
Day 3 will be Grimsey Island where we will cross the Arctic Circle. More tomorrow.
Grimsey Island, great! Ah yes, Tim Martin, he is a great guy, try to chat to him, he’s really interesting, has a great story about how he got into the business, reminds me of my hubby. So you didn’t get to sit at the Captains table like me. Who is the captain?
Day 3 start - We got up in time for breakfast this morning. 😀 We don’t reach Grimsey Island for four more hours. We did just pass, the ship slowed, lots of whales - some blue whales and some other type that I didn’t catch the name of. When the ship’s crew spots the whales they come on the PA to announce it and slow the ship. Tim Martin is giving another presentation in an hour. Turns out, I had a discussion with Tim Martin during yesterday’s excursion. We talked about camera equipment. He had a 300mm lens with a doubler. He had image stabilization both in the lens and the camera. He told me in my response about needing a tripod. I would be quickly worn out toting his camera, it is quite large. So far today it is a gorgeous day. I hope it continues.
More later ...
Day 3, Grimsey completed. The sunny weather continued, yahoo, but we had a strong, cold wind the whole time. Per the TD’s, last week’s tour was unable to go ashore at Grimsey due to the weather. They use the tender boats to go ashore in Grimsey.
We saw an amazing array of birds on Grimsey and posed for pictures on the Arctic Circle. For the pilots out there we saw a commercial prop plane take off from the small Grimsey airport. Kudos to you pilots for being able to safely take off in the type of wind we were experiencing.
A relaxing evening and then on to Day 4 activities. 😀
Quick question before my Iceland trip begins in a couple of weeks. Are hiking shoes recommended or would sturdy walking tennis shoes suffice? Those darn hiking shoes just add weight and space inside a well packed and organized suitcase. Any input would be appreciated. Also, any hat recommendation. Thank you. Judy
When we went it was rainy, you walk on wet beaches etc. waterproof shoes are good, if you are worried about your ankles, shoes with ankle supports are good but I don’t think actual hiking boots are necessary. If you see my second photoabove , that was a wonderful walk on a black pebble beach that was one of our tour choices.
I wore a woolly type hat, it can be really windy. If you buy one there, it will cost you almost $100 for just about any one. Iceland is extreme expensive. I’ll try to find a pic of me
Yep, we look like dorks. But what the heck, we were well dressed for the conditions.
We were lucky enough to to be invited by the captain to go out in his private dinghy on the Artic sea to view the puffins from there. That’s Mr B on the fist pic with I think the captain steering.
I recommend comfortable, waterproof walking shoes (which I wore on the plane). I concur that a warm hat may come in handy, especially on boat excursions. I also brought a baseball hat, and used it a few times.
10:00PM on Day 3 -
That was a wealth of information. Thank you all. I've been to approximately 50 countries - and Africa and Antarctica we still the most memorable but that doesn't compare to the wonderful friends I've met along the way. Judy